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The businessman Vic Mellor, a veteran of the Marine Corps and Republican congressional candidate for Rhode Island, claims to have held several hours of discussions in Havana with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, the grandson of Raúl Castro, according to a report from the AFP agency released this week.
Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo," has been leading the General Directorate of Personal Security at the Ministry of the Interior since 2016, the body responsible for the direct protection of Army General Raúl Castro.
After the meeting, Mellor publicly defended the possibility of economic opening in Cuba and stated that he and Rodríguez Castro share a vision that is favorable to business cooperation between the two countries.
"It’s time for change," declared the businessman, who traveled to Cuba with the stated goal of seeking business partners and job opportunities for the workers in his state.
Mellor also projected a scenario of future American investments on the island and assessed the Cuban market at 100 billion dollars.
"When the political conditions change and a $100 billion Cuban market opens, I want the workers and businesses of Rhode Island to be at the front of the line," he stated on his X social media account.
However, the academic Sebastián Arcos, associate professor at the Cuban Research Institute of Florida International University (FIU), reacted with skepticism to the businessman's statements.
"It's just that, another visit. It's not the first time that American politicians or businessmen have tried to convince the Castro regime to undertake an economic opening, even if it’s partial," Arcos stated in exclusive remarks to Diario Las Américas.
The analyst recalled that decades of similar attempts have been subordinated to the political control of the regime and that this episode does not represent a sign of economic transformation.
"Everyone has failed for the same reason: the regime only accepts absolute control over absolutely everything, politics and the economy," he declared.
Arcos also warned that "only those Western entrepreneurs who are willing to accept the conditions imposed by the regime have the opportunity to enter the country, and they suffer the consequences of that concession."
The meeting with Mellor takes place in a context of increasing unofficial diplomatic activity between Washington and Havana, in which "El Cangrejo" has emerged as the key interlocutor of the Cuban regime with the Trump administration, bypassing the formal channels of the Communist Party and President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
On May 15th, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, traveled to Havana and met specifically with Rodríguez Castro, along with Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas and the head of the Intelligence Directorate of MININT.
The Cuban government confirmed the visit and stated that it was requested by Washington and approved by the "high leadership of the country."
The message conveyed by Ratcliffe was that the United States would engage in discussions about economy and security only if Cuba made "fundamental changes", a condition that the regime has systematically rejected.
On May 19, President Donald Trump publicly declared that reaching a diplomatic agreement with Cuba was possible and that his administration would act "very soon."
Arcos concludes that as long as the regime maintains absolute control over the fundamental decisions of the country, there will be no conditions for an open market economy: "One cannot speak of an economic opening in Cuba, let alone a significant one."
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